How To Use Leaky Paywall As A Hybrid

Leaks Aren’t For Everyone

Your content is your currency, so it’s not surprising that an entire industry has arisen around keeping it safe. Leaky Paywall is hardly the only metered paywall out there.

But it is the most versatile.

For most publishers, the strongest selling point of a paywall is the leaky bit. Allowing readers to pick and choose what they want to read for free, to share and re-share their favorite content, to find what they’re looking for on search engines: this is the hallmark of the metered paywall.

This is especially ideal for local news sources – who publish a ton of content everyday – or for issue-based publishers who want to allow readers to sample before investing in the whole issue.

But other publishers have other needs and this is where Leaky Paywall really begins to shine.

Just check out what thinker and best-selling author Mark Manson has done with his site.

A Vault, Not A Meter

Manson’s site is a collection of essays, articles, and videos offering the advice of a unique philosopher on a wide-variety of topics.

There is no meter whatsoever. There is a long list of titles, each clearly marked as either available or “subscribers only”.

With only about twenty posts a year (though the archive of posts goes back several years), Manson’s content doesn’t reach the volume of most digital magazines or news sources.

But each post is evergreen, long-form content.

He’s generous with the free posts – the entirety of 2015, for example, is available – and each essay is clearly titled, so readers have a good idea of what they’re getting and what they’d be paying for.

Between the value of what’s on offer and the clarity of what more could be, there isn’t the same need to allow readers to control their user experience.

And, the fact is, that Manson’s readers prefer it.

“We tried doing the metered paywall in the beginning and it wasn’t popular with my audience,” Manson says. “[We] found that locking down “member content” ended up being way more effective for everybody.”

It’s Your Paywall

That’s the beauty of Leaky Paywall. It can be whatever you need – a hard wall or a sieve – and more Manson has a few other customizations: the choice of monthly or annual subscription fees, the integration of a simple, low-friction Stripe pop-up to handle registration.

Most metered paywalls are fairly basic: set the number of articles you want to allow, create a subscription card, and away you go.

A true hybrid, Leaky Paywall can be that simple. Or it can be as sophisticated as you like.